£60,000 in tunnel tolls paid by 999 services

Jun 20 2008 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

EMERGENCY services paid more than £60,000 in tunnel fees travelling between Wirral and Liverpool last year, according to details released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Merseyside ambulance drivers and staff on official business were paid around £38,000 between April, 2007, and March, 2008, in tunnel toll expenses.

The region’s Fire Service personnel were paid more than £24,000 in the same period for travelling through the tunnel.

Merseyside Police refused to say how much was paid by them for tunnel tolls, saying the cost of providing the information “is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond” in a Freedom of Information request.

The Liverpool Daily Post investigation follows calls earlier this year for emergency services personnel to be given toll-free travel through the tunnels for official business.

Currently, emergency vehicles

are allowed through the tunnel toll booths without paying only if they are “on blue lights” – responding to an emergency.

Wirral councillor and leader of the Conservatives on Merseyside Fire Authority, Cllr Leslie Rennie, said the situation of emergency vehicles and personnel pay-ing tunnel tolls was “com-plete nonsense, particularly when it’s a Merseyside service”. She added: “If they go through on a blue light for free, they should be able to come back, especially at a time when the Fire Authority, like most other authorities, is strapped for cash.

“That money has to come from somewhere, and could be better used paying for firefighters, offering more home safety and fire preven-tion work, and preventing the deaths of residents in the community.”

Cllr Rennie said she had not been aware of the costs, and said: “It’s bureaucracy gone mad.”

After being asked to provide details of expenses for tunnel tolls under the Freedom of Information Act, Merseyside Fire & Rescue Service said it spent £24,301.78 from April, 2007, to March, 2008, on expenses to employees, including items such as “fast tag” – which allows people to pre-pay for tunnel trips. North West Ambulance Service said it had spent around £38,000 on tolls and tags for ambulances and other official vehicles, although this figure could be higher, and the authority could not be precise without examining all individual expense claims.

The cost of tunnel fees could be used by the ambu-lance service to buy around 25 life-saving defibrillators which are increasingly locat-ed in public places in case of heart attacks, and the fire service could fit hundreds of smoke alarms, which cost from £15 each for the £24,000 they spend on the tunnels.

John McGoldrick, secretary of the campaign group Mersey Tunnels Users Association, said the toll booths cause delays to traffic, which itself could be a hindrance to emergency vehicles. He said: “We think the tolls should be scrapped, and whether they give concessions to emergency vehicles is neither here nor there because there would still be delays. Also, the more they give away in conc- essions, then the more they are likely to demand more money from the rest of us.”

A Merseytravel spokesperson said: “We’ve had an agreed protocol with the emergency services in place for many years.

“Emergency service vehicles travelling on a blue light are not required to stop and pay tolls, and are given every assistance through the tunnels as safely and quickly as possible. For routine use of the tunnels, the charges apply like they would for any other business in Merseyside.”

OPINION: PAGE 10

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